St. Valentine’s Day
Tasks:
FESTIVAL WORKSHEETS
Upper Intermediate+
Teacher’s Notes
to define love
to learn phrases and idioms with love
to read and analyse quotes about love
Preparation: make copies of the worksheet (2 pages for each student)
Skills:
reading, speaking
Language:
various meanings of love
phrases and idioms with love
Sources:
WIKIPEDIA (en.wikipedia.org) – the FREE encyclopaedia
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English on CD-ROM
Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture
Task 1 – lead-in
(vocabulary)
■
■
Elicit that February 14th is St. Valentine’s Day and ways of celebrating this day.
Divide your group into pairs and distribute the 1 st page of the worksheet. Read the quote in Task , elicit its
meaning. Then, ask your Ss to read the 4 sentences below. Ask them to write a definition of love for each of the 4
meanings of this word.
■ Once Ss have produced some definitions (not necessarily perfect lexicographic entries), distribute the second page
of the worksheet. Explain that 4 “real” definitions (from LDOCE) are given at the top of the page. Ask Ss to connect
the definitions with the meanings of love in the sentences. Ss can compare their versions with the printed ones.
Key

Key
Strachey, Lytton (1880–1932) a British writer who was a member of the Bloomsbury group and is known
especially for his book Eminent Victorians, which describes the lives of four famous 19 th century country
people in a humorous and not very respectful way.
A – a strong feeling of caring about someone, especially a member of your family or a close friend
B – a strong feeling of liking someone a lot combined with sexual attraction
C – someone that you feel a strong romantic and sexual attraction to
D – a strong feeling of pleasure and enjoyment that something gives you
Task 2
(vocabulary )
■
Explain that there are many English phrases and idioms with love. One example is the quote in this task: (to) fall in
love. Elicit the meaning of the phrase. Then, ask Ss to think of a person who could be the author of the quote.
■ Then, ask them to complete the expressions below by substituting each picture with a word. Once they do it, they
should connect each phrase with a correct definition. Check the answers before dealing with the extension activity.
Key

Key
Alfred Einstein (1879-1955)
 love song – a song about romantic love
 love at first sight – love from the
first time people see each other
 love story – a book/film etc about romantic love
 not for love nor money – informal
 love letter – a letter that sb writes to tell sb else how much
when it is impossible to obtain or to
they love them
do sth
 love nest – a place where two people who are having a
romantic relationship live or meet each other (used humorously)  be/fall head over heels in love – to
love or suddenly start to love sb very
 puppy love – a young person’s romantic love for sb, which
much
other people do not think is serious
Task 2 – extension activity
(vocabulary)
■
Ask your Ss to use the expressions with love to complete the sentences on the 2nd page of the worksheet. Sentences
in each pair should be completed with the same phrase. One phrase is not used at all.
Key

Key
A. love at first sight
B. love nest
C. love story / love stories
D. love songs
The phrase puppy love is not used.
E. head over heels in love
F. not for love nor money
G. love letter
Task 3
(reading, grammar)
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■
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Notes on authors
■
Pre-teach some more difficult words, especially thwart, coward, incapable, prerogative, brave, worthwhile, bait,
and ponder. Use any technique you find effective with your students.
Make sure that your Ss still work in pairs and ask them to read the quotes on the 2 nd page of the worksheet. Explain
that their task is to divide the quotes into groups according to these rules:
 Ss should have at least 4 subgroups (Point them to the 4 boxes on the 1 st page of the worksheet);
 quotes in each group should have a similar meaning or describe love in a similar way (e.g. using the same
metaphorical language);
 Ss can use each quote more than once and if there are any quotes that are unclassified, Ss should put them in
a special box at the bottom.
Once each pair of Ss has a set of 4 subgroups, ask them to work in groups of 4 Ss and compare their ideas.
Finally, collect the ideas from the groups, writing them on the board. At this stage you should have a pretty long list
of ideas, which will show the many ways of looking at love.
You can give some facts about the authors of the quotes if your Ss are interested.
Key

Key
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-82) a US poet and writer who had great influence on the religious and
philosophical thought of his time.
Farjeon, Eleanor (1881-1965) an English author of stories for the young at heart of all ages. The most well
known of her creations are probably the lyrics to the song Morning Has Broken, written in 1931, and highly
popularised by Cat Stevens in 1971.
Gandhi, Mohandas (1869-1948) an Indian lawyer and politician who successfully led the fight for India’s
independence from the British. He is famous especially for developing the idea of non-violent protest. He was
given the name Mahatma (meaning great soul) by his followers. He was assassinated soon after India gained
independence.
Jones, Franklin (1939-), also known as Adi Da, a modern religious guru and the founder of a new religious
movement. Some of his teachings are novel, whereas other are derived from Buddhism, Hinduism and—
arguably—from Scientology. The movement he created is called Adidam or Daism.
Louys, Pierre (1870-1925) a French author, writer and poet.
Princess Bride, The (1987) a movie directed by Rob Reiner from a screenplay by William Goldman.
Wesley, John (1703-91) an English religious leader who started a new type of Christianity called Methodism.
He travelled around the country speaking to large numbers of people, and held his meetings outside rather than
in churches. He is also known for his work to help poor people.
[suggested answers:]
 love is a disease – A + J
 love is an art – F + M
 love is eternal – G + N + H
 love vs reason – B + K + L + H
 love according to ancient philosophers – G + M
Notes & Comments
■
If you are short of time, assign the extension activity to Task  as homework.
Homework
■
[WRITING] Ask your Ss to write a short and comprehensive dictionary entry of Valentine’s Day. You may ask
them to write their entries for specific readers, e.g. people who were not brought up in the American/European
tradition and who do not know anything about our customs.
■ [SPEAKING] Stronger Ss may be asked to invent/tell a short story (1-2 minutes) using one of the phrases from
Task , e.g. Something I couldn’t get for love nor money or It was love at first sight.